Module edited by Emily Pouncey and Shelby Placker! :)
1st: First you need to open paint. To open this go to start, then accessories, then open paint.
2nd: Identify all the tools.
Here are some short descriptions of the functions of each tool:
Free form selection tool
Allows you to select a portion of the drawing
Eraser
Allows you to erase some or all of a drawing
Eyedropper
Allows you to match a color
Pencil
Allows you to “draw” free-hand
Airbrush
Also called “paint can” gives you a spotted effect.
Line
Allows you to draw straight lines
Rectangle
Allows you to draw rectangles.
Ellipse
Allows you to draw circles and ellipses.
Selector
Allows you to select a rectangular area.
Color Fill
Fills an enclosed area with a chosen color.
Magnifier
Magnifies a portion of your drawing.
Paint Brush
Free-hand painting tool.
Text tool
Allows you to add text to a graphic.
Curve tool
Allows you to add curved lines.
Polygon
Allows you to add polygons.
Rounded Rectangle
Allows you to add rectangles with curved corners.
Color Palette
Allows you to choose a color.
Foreground Color Box(left)
Indicates the color your tool will draw or paint.
Background Color Box(right)
Indicates the background color on some tools.
PENCIL TOOL
Let’s begin by testing each of the tools. Select a tool by clicking on it one at a time. Let’s start with the PENCIL. Click on the pencil, and then click on a color. Move the mouse into the drawing area. Notice that your mouse cursor looks like a pencil. To draw, place the pencil where you want to begin, and press your left mouse button. Hold the button down while you move the mouse. You will see your line appear in the drawing area. Do some loopty-loops and some squiggles. Then try to write your name. Click on the color platelets to change colors and draw some more. When your drawing area becomes full, click Image (on menu bar), Clear Image. This will give you a clean area to continue your doodling!
Note: One of the most useful features is the Undo feature. Many of you have used this in other applications. When you make a mistake, click Edit, Undo. That will erase the last thing you did. This is especially helpful when you are creating a detailed drawing, and do not want to keep starting over!
PAINTBRUSH TOOL Now let’s look at the difference between the pencil and the Paintbrush. Again, click on your tool (the paintbrush) and choose a color. This time, when you move your mouse cursor into the drawing area, you do not see a pencil. You don’t see a paintbrush either! You see a crosshair. It works the same way as the pencil. One difference is that you can change the shape of the brush. Look below the ellipse tool, and you will see a rectangular area with many different shapes. Click on a few and try to paint with them and see what they do to your paint brush strokes.
ERASER TOOL
Now is a good time to try to use the Eraser. Click on it. Notice the different sized squares in the box below the tools. You can have a tiny eraser or a large one. Try erasing parts of your picture with each size of eraser. The eraser is used most effectively when you only have a little bit to erase. When you want to start over completely, it’s faster and easier to click Image, Clear Image. Do that now to get a fresh screen.
Note: Sometimes, when you click on the Image menu, Clear Image appears in gray and cannot be chosen. If it happens, there is another way to get a clean drawing area. You can click File, New. It will ask you if you want to save your work before you continue. (Usually, the answer is “No”.)
RECATANGLE, ELLIPSE, and ROUNDED RECTANGLE TOOLS
The Rectangle, Ellipse, and Rounded Rectangle tools are all used the same way. You click on the tool, put your cursor in the drawing area, hold down your left mouse button, and drag the mouse until you have the desired shape. Then let go of the mouse. You have several fill options on these shapes. They are below the tools. If the first one is selected, it will give the outline of the shape in the color selected on the left square. The interior will be the color of the background in the drawing area. If the second one is chosen, the frame of the shape will be the color of the left square, and the inside of the shape will be filled with the color of the right square. If the third option is chosen, the image will not have a visible frame and be filled with the color of the left square.
Note: To the left of the color palelette, you will see two colored squares. The left square, also called the foreground color, indicated the color your image will be.The right square indicated the background color. You can change these colors. Click once on a color in the color palette with the left button to change the square color on the left (the foreground color). Click once on a color in the color palette with the right button to change the color of the right square (the background color).
Another Note: The size of the frame can be changed. If you click on the line tool, just above the rectangle, you can choose the line width, click on the rectangle tool (or ellipse, etc.) and draw your shape. The frame will correspond to the width you had previously determined.
Now if you haven’t already tried out these tools, do it now. Draw some rectangles, some circles, and some rounded rectangles. Make some with frames and no fill, some completely filled, and some filled with frames.
The picture below demonstrates the 3 types of fill possibilities on each type of the shapes. COLOR FILL TOOL(PAINT CAN)
Now, let’s look at a few more tools and then we will be ready to begin our works of art! Just above the magnifying glass is a picture of a Paint Can. It will “fill” an area with the color selected. One thing you need to understand is that it will fill an entire closed area. If you choose to fill an area that is not totally enclosed, the paint will run out into the rest of the picture. Click Image, Clear Image. Use your pencil or your paintbrush and draw a closed figure (like a square or circle). Click on a color, and then click on your paint can. Put the tip of a paint “pouring out of the can” in the middle of where you want to fill the color and click. It should fill the shape completely. Now, draw a shape that is not completely enclosed. Use your paint can to fill the color inside the shape. What happened? It probably filled the entire screen with that color (except for any enclosed shapes you might have previously drawn). See example below. Remember, if this happens accidentally when you are working on a picture, you can click Edit, Undo.
AIRBRUSH (or Spray Paint)
Another tool that comes in handy when you are trying to be “creative” is the Airbrush, also known as the spray paint tool. It will “spray paint” in the chosed color. You have three sizes of spatter. You can click to spray, or you can drag. It works much the same way as a can of spray paint! Try it! LINE TOOL
The next tool we want to look at is the Line tool. This tool is used to draw a straight line. Notice the line thickness choices shown below. To draw a line, click on the line tool, choose the desired line thickness, move the mouse to the drawing area. Then, hold down the mouse button and drag to the desired length. Experiment now with drawing lines of varying thicknesses and color. CURVE TOOL
Right next to the line tool is the Curve tool. It is used to draw curve lines. It is a little tricky to get the hang of this tool. To use it, drag it as you would the line tool. To make it curve, click in the direction that you want the curve to go. You can make it curve a maximum of two times. Again, you can choose the color and the width of this tool.
Note: To have more control over what your curve will look like, hold down your mouse button while you drag it around. Let it go when you like what you see!
The shapes you see in the figure below were made by doing the following:
Click your mouse.
Click a second time a few inches away from your first click.
Click the third time, holding your mouse button down, and dragging it until you have the desired shape.
Make a few test curves now! POLYGON TOOL The Polygon tool is just to the right of the rectangle tool. It helps you create polygons of various shapes and many sides with ease. To use the tool, click on it. Then drag your mouse to create the first side of the polygon. From there, you can simply place your cursor where you want the next side to end, and click. A line will appear, connecting the end point of the first line segment with the point where you clicked your mouse. You can continue to click wherever you want your line segments to appear, creating as many sides as you want. When you are ready to close your figure, click on the point where you first began. With this tool, you have the same three choices as you do with the rectangle and ellipse tools. If the first one is selected, it will give the outline of the shape in the color selected on the left square (foreground color). The interior will be the color of the drawing area. If the second onje is chosen, the frame of the shape will be the color of the left square.’ And the inside of the shape will be filled with the color of the right square. If the third option is chosen, the image will be filled with the color of the left square. (If you don’t remember how to change the color options, refer back to the section of the rectangle tool.) Both of the shapes in the figure below were made with the polygon tool. Get aclear image and experiment a little with this tool.
SELECTOR TOOLS: The next two tools we will explore are at the top of the toolbat- the Selector Tool and the Free form selector tool, also known as Cutouts. These tools allow you to select a portion of your picture and either move it to a new location, or copy and paste it to a another location. The selector tool will always allow you to select a portion in the shape that you desire. To use either tool, you must hold down the left mouse button while you drag the desired shape. Once you let go, a rectangular shape will appear as a four- sided arrow. Place the four sided arrow inside the rectangular shape and drag it to where you want it to stay. The outline of the shape you drew will remain where it was, but now it appears in the background color. Experiment for a few minutes with this tool.
EYEDROPPER TOOL: Sometimes, you might use a color on a part of a picture and need to match it later, but have forgotten exactly which color you choose. The Eyedropper tool can help you solve that problem. To use it, click on the tool. Moce your mouse (which now looks like an eyedropper) to the color that you want to match. Click. Now choose the drawing/painting tool you need and it should be the color you wanted to use. (you can tell by looking at the foreground color box-it should be the color you chose.) Remember, if you make a mistake while creating your drawing, use the Edit, Undo feature. If you create something you like, save it. By saving it often, you can save yourself some big headaches! If you have saved your work, and then make a mess of it, you can close the program without saving. Then when you open your file again, it will have the original drawing ready to edit.
It’s time to try to use the tools we have learned about to create a picture. Let’s pretend that we have been learning about castles. Look at the picture below. It was drawn using the tools we have discussed so far. Now it’s time to see if you can draw a castle. Each time you add something that you like, save it. That way, if a mistake is made that the Edit, Undo feature cannot fix, you don’t have to start from scratch! You do not have to try to duplicate the example of a castle on the next page. It is just there as a reference. It is a very primitive effort, and definitely NOT the definite piece of work you should try to copy! Please save your picture and save a copy of your castle for your portfolio. Good luck, and have fun! MAGNIFYING TOOL
There are two other tools that we haven’t talked about. The first one I’d like to talk about is the Magnifying tool. You would have found it very handy in editing your castle! Occasionally, you will find it difficult to get your lines to end exactly where you want them to end, or to line up just right. The magnifying tool can help greatly. Once you click on the tool, you will see a rectangular box appear when you move your mouse. Frame the portion of the picture that you want to take a closer look at and click. It will magnify that portion of the picture. It is quite easy to use your pencil to add color one tiny piece at a time. This is very helpful when you are trying to use the Fill feature and it inadvertently changes the color of the entire area, rather than just the part you want to change. To get back to your original size, click again on the magnifying glass and choose 1x for the size. (You can also choose one of the other sizes to enlarge your drawing in varying degrees).
Use the magnifying tool to go back to your castle picture and make some changes to make it look a little more polished or to create an effect you couldn’t otherwise do before. When you are finished, save it and print out the new and improved version. TEXT TOOL
The last tool we are going to take a look at is the Text tool. You can add text to your pictures with this tool. To do this, you will click on the text tool. Then, drag your cursor to create a text box. When your box is the size you want, let go of the mouse. Your text formatting toolbar should appear. (If it doesn’t, click View, Text toolbar.) On the toolbar, you can change the font style and font color. Type the words you want to type. You can choose the text color by clicking on the color of your choice in the color palette. (This can be done before or after you type.) You can also choose the background color of the text box by right clicking on the color of your choice in the color palette.
You can also choose to have a transparent background in your text box. To do that, look at the two graphics below the toolbar. The top graphic will give you a background color in the text box. The bottom graphic will give you a transparent background in the text box so that the original graphic is not obscured by the box. You can change the size of the text box by dragging the corner to the desired size. Note: If you click outside of the text box, you will deselect it, and cannot change any aspect of that box. So make sure that you have everything just like you want it before you click outside of the box. As long as the box remains “selected”, you can continue to make changes to your text.
Let’s add a title to our graphic. Make it say “My Castle”. Below, you will see an example of a colored background in the text box and a transparent background. The transparent background is on the left, and the color-filled background is on the right. Choose the style you want, and add a title to your picture. After you create your title, save it and print a copy. OTHER OPTIONS
There are few other options we have not discussed. In the Image menu, there are several options you may want to explore. We will discuss the first three in this module. The Flip/Rotate options allows you to flip the picture horizontally, vertically, or at an angle in between. The Stretch/Screw feature lets you stretch or skew the drawing to various degrees. The Invert Colors feature will automatically invert the colors to their color complements (red becomes blue, blue becomes yellow, etc.). Take a few minutes to look at the effects each of these features has on your drawing. Remember, you can get your picture back to its original design if you will use the Edit, Undo feature immediately after making each change. EDITING COLORS
One last feature we need to discuss is the fact that you can edit the colors in your palette. There are two ways to get there. You can click Colors, Edit colors, or you can double click on the color palette. You will then see a window like the one here. Click on the Define Custom Colors button.
Click on the color in the hue window to choose the hue and saturation of a color, and then drag your slider button (on the far right side of the window) to determine the luminescence if that color. Once you have the color you desire showing in the Color/Solid window, click on the button that says Add to Custom Colors. You will then have that color as a choice in your color palette.
1st: First you need to open paint. To open this go to start, then accessories, then open paint.
2nd: Identify all the tools.
Here are some short descriptions of the functions of each tool:
PENCIL TOOL
Let’s begin by testing each of the tools. Select a tool by clicking on it one at a time. Let’s start with the PENCIL. Click on the pencil, and then click on a color. Move the mouse into the drawing area. Notice that your mouse cursor looks like a pencil. To draw, place the pencil where you want to begin, and press your left mouse button. Hold the button down while you move the mouse. You will see your line appear in the drawing area. Do some loopty-loops and some squiggles. Then try to write your name. Click on the color platelets to change colors and draw some more. When your drawing area becomes full, click Image (on menu bar), Clear Image. This will give you a clean area to continue your doodling!
Note: One of the most useful features is the Undo feature. Many of you have used this in other applications. When you make a mistake, click Edit, Undo. That will erase the last thing you did. This is especially helpful when you are creating a detailed drawing, and do not want to keep starting over!
PAINTBRUSH TOOL
Now let’s look at the difference between the pencil and the Paintbrush. Again, click on your tool (the paintbrush) and choose a color. This time, when you move your mouse cursor into the drawing area, you do not see a pencil. You don’t see a paintbrush either! You see a crosshair. It works the same way as the pencil. One difference is that you can change the shape of the brush. Look below the ellipse tool, and you will see a rectangular area with many different shapes. Click on a few and try to paint with them and see what they do to your paint brush strokes.
ERASER TOOL
Now is a good time to try to use the Eraser. Click on it. Notice the different sized squares in the box below the tools. You can have a tiny eraser or a large one. Try erasing parts of your picture with each size of eraser. The eraser is used most effectively when you only have a little bit to erase. When you want to start over completely, it’s faster and easier to click Image, Clear Image. Do that now to get a fresh screen.
Note: Sometimes, when you click on the Image menu, Clear Image appears in gray and cannot be chosen. If it happens, there is another way to get a clean drawing area. You can click File, New. It will ask you if you want to save your work before you continue. (Usually, the answer is “No”.)
RECATANGLE, ELLIPSE, and ROUNDED RECTANGLE TOOLS
The Rectangle, Ellipse, and Rounded Rectangle tools are all used the same way. You click on the tool, put your cursor in the drawing area, hold down your left mouse button, and drag the mouse until you have the desired shape. Then let go of the mouse. You have several fill options on these shapes. They are below the tools. If the first one is selected, it will give the outline of the shape in the color selected on the left square. The interior will be the color of the background in the drawing area. If the second one is chosen, the frame of the shape will be the color of the left square, and the inside of the shape will be filled with the color of the right square. If the third option is chosen, the image will not have a visible frame and be filled with the color of the left square.
Note: To the left of the color palelette, you will see two colored squares. The left square, also called the foreground color, indicated the color your image will be. The right square indicated the background color. You can change these colors. Click once on a color in the color palette with the left button to change the square color on the left (the foreground color). Click once on a color in the color palette with the right button to change the color of the right square (the background color).
Another Note: The size of the frame can be changed. If you click on the line tool, just above the rectangle, you can choose the line width, click on the rectangle tool (or ellipse, etc.) and draw your shape. The frame will correspond to the width you had previously determined.
Now if you haven’t already tried out these tools, do it now. Draw some rectangles, some circles, and some rounded rectangles. Make some with frames and no fill, some completely filled, and some filled with frames.
The picture below demonstrates the 3 types of fill possibilities on each type of the shapes.
COLOR FILL TOOL(PAINT CAN)
Now, let’s look at a few more tools and then we will be ready to begin our works of art! Just above the magnifying glass is a picture of a Paint Can. It will “fill” an area with the color selected. One thing you need to understand is that it will fill an entire closed area. If you choose to fill an area that is not totally enclosed, the paint will run out into the rest of the picture. Click Image, Clear Image. Use your pencil or your paintbrush and draw a closed figure (like a square or circle). Click on a color, and then click on your paint can. Put the tip of a paint “pouring out of the can” in the middle of where you want to fill the color and click. It should fill the shape completely. Now, draw a shape that is not completely enclosed. Use your paint can to fill the color inside the shape. What happened? It probably filled the entire screen with that color (except for any enclosed shapes you might have previously drawn). See example below. Remember, if this happens accidentally when you are working on a picture, you can click Edit, Undo.
AIRBRUSH (or Spray Paint)
Another tool that comes in handy when you are trying to be “creative” is the Airbrush, also known as the spray paint tool. It will “spray paint” in the chosed color. You have three sizes of spatter. You can click to spray, or you can drag. It works much the same way as a can of spray paint! Try it!
LINE TOOL
The next tool we want to look at is the Line tool. This tool is used to draw a straight line. Notice the line thickness choices shown below. To draw a line, click on the line tool, choose the desired line thickness, move the mouse to the drawing area. Then, hold down the mouse button and drag to the desired length. Experiment now with drawing lines of varying thicknesses and color.
CURVE TOOL
Right next to the line tool is the Curve tool. It is used to draw curve lines. It is a little tricky to get the hang of this tool. To use it, drag it as you would the line tool. To make it curve, click in the direction that you want the curve to go. You can make it curve a maximum of two times. Again, you can choose the color and the width of this tool.
Note: To have more control over what your curve will look like, hold down your mouse button while you drag it around. Let it go when you like what you see!
The shapes you see in the figure below were made by doing the following:
- Click your mouse.
- Click a second time a few inches away from your first click.
- Click the third time, holding your mouse button down, and dragging it until you have the desired shape.
Make a few test curves now!POLYGON TOOL
The Polygon tool is just to the right of the rectangle tool. It helps you create polygons of various shapes and many sides with ease. To use the tool, click on it. Then drag your mouse to create the first side of the polygon. From there, you can simply place your cursor where you want the next side to end, and click. A line will appear, connecting the end point of the first line segment with the point where you clicked your mouse. You can continue to click wherever you want your line segments to appear, creating as many sides as you want. When you are ready to close your figure, click on the point where you first began. With this tool, you have the same three choices as you do with the rectangle and ellipse tools. If the first one is selected, it will give the outline of the shape in the color selected on the left square (foreground color). The interior will be the color of the drawing area. If the second onje is chosen, the frame of the shape will be the color of the left square.’ And the inside of the shape will be filled with the color of the right square. If the third option is chosen, the image will be filled with the color of the left square. (If you don’t remember how to change the color options, refer back to the section of the rectangle tool.) Both of the shapes in the figure below were made with the polygon tool. Get a clear image and experiment a little with this tool.
SELECTOR TOOLS:
The next two tools we will explore are at the top of the toolbat- the Selector Tool and the Free form selector tool, also known as Cutouts. These tools allow you to select a portion of your picture and either move it to a new location, or copy and paste it to a another location. The selector tool will always allow you to select a portion in the shape that you desire. To use either tool, you must hold down the left mouse button while you drag the desired shape. Once you let go, a rectangular shape will appear as a four- sided arrow. Place the four sided arrow inside the rectangular shape and drag it to where you want it to stay. The outline of the shape you drew will remain where it was, but now it appears in the background color. Experiment for a few minutes with this tool.
EYEDROPPER TOOL:
Sometimes, you might use a color on a part of a picture and need to match it later, but have forgotten exactly which color you choose. The Eyedropper tool can help you solve that problem. To use it, click on the tool. Moce your mouse (which now looks like an eyedropper) to the color that you want to match. Click. Now choose the drawing/painting tool you need and it should be the color you wanted to use. (you can tell by looking at the foreground color box-it should be the color you chose.)
Remember, if you make a mistake while creating your drawing, use the Edit, Undo feature. If you create something you like, save it. By saving it often, you can save yourself some big headaches! If you have saved your work, and then make a mess of it, you can close the program without saving. Then when you open your file again, it will have the original drawing ready to edit.
It’s time to try to use the tools we have learned about to create a picture. Let’s pretend that we have been learning about castles. Look at the picture below. It was drawn using the tools we have discussed so far. Now it’s time to see if you can draw a castle. Each time you add something that you like, save it. That way, if a mistake is made that the Edit, Undo feature cannot fix, you don’t have to start from scratch! You do not have to try to duplicate the example of a castle on the next page. It is just there as a reference. It is a very primitive effort, and definitely NOT the definite piece of work you should try to copy!
Please save your picture and save a copy of your castle for your portfolio. Good luck, and have fun!
MAGNIFYING TOOL
There are two other tools that we haven’t talked about. The first one I’d like to talk about is the Magnifying tool. You would have found it very handy in editing your castle! Occasionally, you will find it difficult to get your lines to end exactly where you want them to end, or to line up just right. The magnifying tool can help greatly. Once you click on the tool, you will see a rectangular box appear when you move your mouse. Frame the portion of the picture that you want to take a closer look at and click. It will magnify that portion of the picture. It is quite easy to use your pencil to add color one tiny piece at a time. This is very helpful when you are trying to use the Fill feature and it inadvertently changes the color of the entire area, rather than just the part you want to change. To get back to your original size, click again on the magnifying glass and choose 1x for the size. (You can also choose one of the other sizes to enlarge your drawing in varying degrees).
Use the magnifying tool to go back to your castle picture and make some changes to make it look a little more polished or to create an effect you couldn’t otherwise do before. When you are finished, save it and print out the new and improved version.
TEXT TOOL
The last tool we are going to take a look at is the Text tool. You can add text to your pictures with this tool. To do this, you will click on the text tool. Then, drag your cursor to create a text box. When your box is the size you want, let go of the mouse. Your text formatting toolbar should appear. (If it doesn’t, click View, Text toolbar.) On the toolbar, you can change the font style and font color. Type the words you want to type. You can choose the text color by clicking on the color of your choice in the color palette. (This can be done before or after you type.) You can also choose the background color of the text box by right clicking on the color of your choice in the color palette.
You can also choose to have a transparent background in your text box. To do that, look at the two graphics below the toolbar. The top graphic will give you a background color in the text box. The bottom graphic will give you a transparent background in the text box so that the original graphic is not obscured by the box. You can change the size of the text box by dragging the corner to the desired size.
Note: If you click outside of the text box, you will deselect it, and cannot change any aspect of that box. So make sure that you have everything just like you want it before you click outside of the box. As long as the box remains “selected”, you can continue to make changes to your text.
Let’s add a title to our graphic. Make it say “My Castle”. Below, you will see an example of a colored background in the text box and a transparent background. The transparent background is on the left, and the color-filled background is on the right. Choose the style you want, and add a title to your picture. After you create your title, save it and print a copy.
OTHER OPTIONS
There are few other options we have not discussed. In the Image menu, there are several options you may want to explore. We will discuss the first three in this module. The Flip/Rotate options allows you to flip the picture horizontally, vertically, or at an angle in between. The Stretch/Screw feature lets you stretch or skew the drawing to various degrees. The Invert Colors feature will automatically invert the colors to their color complements (red becomes blue, blue becomes yellow, etc.). Take a few minutes to look at the effects each of these features has on your drawing. Remember, you can get your picture back to its original design if you will use the Edit, Undo feature immediately after making each change.
EDITING COLORS
One last feature we need to discuss is the fact that you can edit the colors in your palette. There are two ways to get there. You can click Colors, Edit colors, or you can double click on the color palette. You will then see a window like the one here. Click on the Define Custom Colors button.
Click on the color in the hue window to choose the hue and saturation of a color, and then drag your slider button (on the far right side of the window) to determine the luminescence if that color. Once you have the color you desire showing in the Color/Solid window, click on the button that says Add to Custom Colors. You will then have that color as a choice in your color palette.